Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home by Rhoda Janzen

Author:Rhoda Janzen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Poets, Mennonite, Personal Memoirs, 21st century, General, Literary, Religion, American, Biography & Autobiography, Christianity, Biography, Women
ISBN: 9780805092257
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
Published: 2010-04-13T04:00:00+00:00

That night Hannah and I stayed up late watching Japanese Iron Chef on the food network. I didn't have cable, a fact that I liked to pretend was due to my recent financial cutbacks/marital fiasco, but which was really due to my being an academic dork. Tragically, we professors are more likely to pick up a windy biography on Feo Belcari than turn on the TV. Hannah was appalled that this was the very first time I had ever heard of the whole Iron Chef concept-"How can you call yourself a cook and not know what's going on in the food world?"

"Can't I be a decent cook without knowing what other people are cooking?"

"No."

I tried again. "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"

"Get current, or get out of the kitchen," she said.

"Well," I said, reaching, "at least I'm not wearing a fleece vest."

Watching this show was like the helpless feeling you get when you feel cosmically compelled to take a big swig of buttermilk. The smell makes you shudder, but you keep coming back. On the show, a food critic, presented with a dish of Israeli couscous in a rich ruby beet juice, offered some detailed feedback in Japanese, none of which we understood. But the food critic spoke for a long time. He developed his theme, gesticulating elaborately, chasing nuanced implications. Finally he concluded with an oratorical flourish of serious expostulation. Just as he was wrapping it up, there came the calm voice-over of a professional translator. This is how she translated the food critic's long eloquent commentary:

"I'm feeling good." (Pause)

"All over." (Pause)

"Right now."

That night, humming "Brighten the Corner Where You Are," I went to bed conducting a mental review of the day. Hornblower, check. Big Job, check. Couscous, check. Simplicity, check. My heart was broken, my legs were scarred, and I might well lose my house. But, go figure, I was feeling pretty good. All over. Right now.

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